Criminal justice reporter

Authorities on Tuesday charged a 30-year-old Watkinsville man for robbing a friend.

Jeremy William Stanton was transferred to the Clarke County Jail from Calhoun State Prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence for assaulting a Barrow County police officer, drug possession and other crimes.

Authorities moved Stanton so he could attend a preliminary hearing in Athens-Clarke County Magistrate Court concerning a local armed robbery charge.

Athens-Clarke police said that on Sept. 28, 2011, Stanton called a friend in Forsyth County, saying he was down on his luck and needed a loan.

Though the friend had not seen Stanton for a while, he immediately agreed to the loan, but said he first needed to collect his paycheck, according to police.

They met the next day in the parking lot of a business on Atlanta Highway in Athens, where police said Stanton arrived in a car driven by another man. As the friend prepared to give Stanton some of the money from the paycheck he just cashed, police said Stanton pulled a knife, said he “hated to do this,” pressed the weapon into the victim’s stomach, snatched the money and drove off.

The victim told police that Stanton appeared to be “messed up” on drugs.

Athens-Clarke police took out an armed robbery arrest warrant a couple weeks later, but didn’t serve Stanton with it until he was transferred from prison to the local jail Tuesday afternoon.

Stanton has a lengthy history of arrests and convictions in different counties for a variety of offenses. He is currently serving his third prison sentence since 2007.

The most recent stint started in January, after he was convicted of pointing a gun at a police officer in Barrow County, among other crimes.

That officer was on patrol in Statham the night of Dec. 3 when he saw Stanton acting suspiciously at a Texaco station on Atlanta Highway, police said.

He ran from the officer, who chased after and found the man hiding outside an adjacent business. After getting caught, police said Stanton pointed a gun at the officer.

The officer incapacitated Stanton with a Taser.

Police determined the gun had been stolen a few hours earlier during a burglary in Oconee County.

Stanton was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, theft by receiving a stolen firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and other offenses.